


two birds of a feather

by StarrBomb



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Lance (Voltron), FTM, Internal Transphobia, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Prince Lance - Freeform, Trans Lance (Voltron), before quintessence corruption zarkon, lance and allura are twins, lance is allana, made up altean biology, the elders are dicks, there is some transphobia, transitioning is different for Alteans, zarkon is a good guy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-22 20:21:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12490072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarrBomb/pseuds/StarrBomb
Summary: When Allura and Allana were born, Alfor couldn’t have been happier than he was right then. His two precious and beautiful daughters; twins. When Allana was placed in his arms, he didn’t want to let go, he wanted to protect her and her sister from everything and everyone. And through the years he didn’t pull any stops to shower them with the most beautiful dresses and whatever toys they desired.but it soon became apparent as hey grew that Allana was much different from Allura;Allana say herself as a boy.





	1. two birds of a feather

When Allura and Allana were born, Alfor couldn’t have been happier than he was right then. His two precious and beautiful daughters; twins. When Allana was placed in his arms, he didn’t want to let go, he wanted to protect her and her sister from everything and everyone. And through the years he didn’t pull any stops to shower them with the most beautiful dresses and whatever toys they desired.

But as the years went on, it was very obvious that while they looked exactly alike; they were two very different people. While Allura enjoyed the dresses and playing dress up with their mothers jewelry and makeup, Allana was much more interested in the guards and the other paladins. She would choose to wear the usual training uniforms rather than the vibrant gowns, she would ask all sorts of questions about the battles that Zarkon and the other paladins have been on, enraptured by their tales.

But the most worrying thing, or the most worrying thing to the lords and dukes and elders, was that Allana didn’t enjoy being called a princess. It was fairly obvious to Alfor and his wife what it all meant; Allana saw herself as a boy, not a girl. It happens all the time with the people of Altea, many of them see themselves as the other gender and will make that change to feel comfortable in their own body. It was completely normal….to commoners. But when it comes to royalty, many of the elders and higher class expect those of the royal line to be perfect from birth; and any change to that is implying that they are wrong and flawed. And in some cases, from what he’s read, they even go as far as to make such children of the royal family be disowned and cast out from their home.

It’s a messed up way of thinking, Alfor knows this, but he also knows that changing their way of view will be a battle that could wage on for a decafeeb before making any headway on the subject. He still supports his daughter in little ways; ways that won’t out his child to the stern views of their peers.

He gets her fencing lessons and lets her join the guards training sessions as well as some of their guarding posts. He encourages her to ask Zarkon and trigel any questions she has. He’s even taken her on a few rides in Red when she’s depressed at not being able to be who she wants to be.

But her number one supporter is Allura, who always asked Allana to be the knight in shining armor whenever she wanted to play pretend, who would cheer her sister on whenever she was training against the bots. Who would whisper how proud she was of her for trying her best to be herself. Both of them know that if it got out to the elders and the other dukes and lords that Allana saw herself as a boy, it would be disastrous and that they could be forced to be separated. So Allana put up with all of the lessons on how to be a ‘proper’ princess, she would wear the gowns that everyone expected her to wear to balls and important diplomatic meetings. She would hold back her flinches and cringes whenever anyone would call her princess. She did what was expected of her, at least the bare minimum of it all.

Her favorite times though was when she hanged out with her sister in the middle of the night, hiding under draped sheets between their beds and every pillow covering the floor. It was when Allura would use male pronouns only between them that would make Allana smile when she would suggest all sorts of different names for her to go by if they lived in that perfect world. It was when Allura didn’t hold back whenever they trained in the middle of the night to help Allana get rid of her frustrations.

But she also loved being able to visit Zarkon and Honerva, or any of the other paladins on their home planets. Because there weren’t high elders or high officials of the Altean courts there when she went to diabazall and the Dalterion Belt, or to Nalquod, the paladins would use Allana’s preferred pronouns, they would respect her as she had always wanted to be.

When Zarkon had betrayed Voltron; he had also betrayed Allana. She had always looked up to him, always wanted to be like him and be able to fight along side him and the other paladins. But when Alfor had asked Blaytz to take Allana as far away from Zarkon as he could, to be separated from her twin and closest friend to have a slim chance of escaping Zarkon, it was the worst feeling in the world. And when Blaytz had guided Allana to the emergency cyropod inside of blue, she knew that he wouldn’t come back, but she followed him anyways. Hoping to find some relief from the pain of betrayal and grief for her people, her family, her sister. And when that cold darkness slipped into her mind, she eagerly followed it into her dreams.

• • • • • • • • • • •

She doesn’t know how long she had stayed in the Blue lion, sleeping through dream after dream until there were no more dreams to fill her mind, good or bad ones.

When she had finally awoken, Allana stumbled out of pod into the dark mid-carriage of the metallic beast. All of the heartache and the memories flooding back into the forefront of her mind. She couldn’t bare to be there any longer, running out of the lion and following the only glimmer of light to be seen in the pitch black cave. She staggered out of the cave to a desert, barren of anything living. So Allana did the only thing she knew, she walked. For days and nights, she walked through the desert until she had finally come to a town. She quickly shifted herself to look like the being that inhabited the planet. She would have never guessed that two people would have seen her do this; nor would she have guessed that they would offer her to come live with them and their children.

As the years went by, Allana learned all she could about Earth and its cultures and history, sad to see that some of their histories mimics the Galra’s. But she could never hate the McClains, they took her and immediately told her that they knew she was alien, and that they didn’t care if she came from some other planet. They have her that same feeling of home that her sister and father did.

• • • • • • • • • • • •

“Auntie 'Lana?”

Allana whips around to see Fernando, the young son of her adoptive brother standing in the doorway of the bathroom, looking at her as she tries to wrap the bandages around her chest. Fear races up her spine as the memories of being found out by anyone bulldoze through her mind. She didn’t realize she was crying or that she had crumbled to the floor until she felt Fernando hugging her, calling out for mama and papa. By the time they got to the bathroom, Allana was sobbing into her cousins shoulder, holding him close as if it was the last time she would ever see him (because it was, she would be thrown out and disowned and she’ll never get to hold him again.) all the while little Fernando murmurs that everything was going to be okay. (But it wasn’t! Can’t he see that?! She’s going to be cut off and forced to be on her own all over again!)

“Allana? What’s wrong sweetie? Are you hurt?”

“I-I-I-I’m sorry!”

“Allana, you have to tell us what’s wrong, you’re not in trouble, please just tell us.”

Shaking from head to toe, she shows her bonded chest to them, hearing the gasps from them only making her tears come down even harder.

“Allana, oh sweetie….”

“ALLANA!”

She can’t help but curl in on herself, only to be lifted out of that position from her surrogate father.

“YOU HAVE BEEN BINDING WITH ACE BANDAGES?!?! Don’t you know how DANGEROUS that is for your body?! This could have permanent damage to your ribs!” Allana can only owlishly blink at him as he starts to grumble about all of the negative effects as he unwinds the bandages from her chest.

“You’re…you’re not made that I see myself as a boy?” She whispers, afraid that if she spoke too loud some unseen elder will come down on her and tear her away from this family.

“of course not, we love you for you, and if you see yourself as a boy then you’re a boy, and we’ll support you.”

Fernando pops up from beside her and proudly states “I know! Papa said that those kinds of people are called trans-transgendered! Right?” Papa pats his grandchild on the head. “That’s right Fernando, and it’s perfectly fine if you are, I just wished you had told us before you started using these!” He shakes the bandages around in his fist “we could have gotten you a binder and look into getting you men’s clothing.”

Allana’s tears still flow, only this time it’s from relief and happiness. She-no, he-he didn’t know what to say, completely taken aback by how supportive they are. Fernando collides into him and hugs him as tight as he can. “And the best part is that you get to give yourself a new name! How about Patrick! Or Megatron!” Allana lets out a water laugh at her cousin's choices of names, recalling all the late nights Allura and he would stay up and list off names. One name comes to mind as he looks to his new family, so welcoming of his true self.

“How about Lance.”


	2. molting old feathers

When Alla- no, he doesn’t have to keep calling himself that old name anymore. There’s no reason to hide himself anymore, he’s loved for who he is and he can openly express himself now. Lance. His name is Lance now.

When Lance was still on Altea, still young and enjoying the peace that Voltron had given the universe, he would often sneak off past curfew to go to the royal library to read about the medical practice and history of gender-shifting; an ability that every Altean has that allows them to permanently change from one gender to the other. Many of the medical books and doctors believed that it was some sort of failsafe, although the theories as to why we needed his ability long ago go from theoretically possible to completely obscure.

He read time and time again about how with the help of the boom in the medical field that going through the transition was easier than ever. It was thanks to a discovery of a new pain reducer as well as the invention of the cryopod that made what was once a process that took multiple days to shorten it to only a few hours to a day. He’s read over and over about how before Alteans were adept at medical practices, the process was torturous for those brave enough to go through it. The pain of permanently changing from one form to another being rumored to be crippling to say the least, and the fact that it could take between a day to a full week to complete the transition, he was glad that he was born in a time of Altea where they don’t have to feel the pain to be able to be themselves.

But now, he’s on Earth. With no availability to Altean medicine at all, and if he were to go to the hospital he would be taken away from the McClains. And he’s heard and seen enough of what this government can and will do to people from another planet. He can’t take that chance.

His adoptive father had suggested that he try to use the human equivalent to transitioning through using hormones and proper binders. Although the minute mama heard him talking about it, she immediately shut him down, explaining that Lance couldn’t do that; they had no idea if the injections could harm him, and doing a transition like they do he would have to go to regular check-ups and the last thing they want is for him to be found out and taken away from them.

That’s when Lance explained about gender shifting. He understands the fears that they have, and he’s scared to. He’s never done anything like this, and back home they had proper medication and protocol to follow to make all of it as smooth and painless as possible. He doesn’t have that here, he’ll have to go through this without anything to dull the pain or shorten the time for the shift to complete. But he wants to do this, needs to so that he can finally be the man that he wishes to be.

His foster parents had set a date for when he will start the transition, making sure to have days off from work so that they’re there In case he needs help with anything. All three of them had made sure to help stock up on food and water and blankets so that he doesn’t have to worry about leaving his room for anything.

When the date arrives he hugs both of his new parents, each of them giving him a sharp and loved filled hug. Lance warns them both to not be worried if they start hearing him scream. Although that immediately got him the ‘of course we’re going to worry’ glares from them, they both wished him luck and with that Lance closes his door and wishes himself luck as well.

He takes a seat in the center of the room, trying to figure out how to start the gender-shift by himself. Usually, back on Altea, a specific drug was administered to kick start it, but he doesn’t have that, so he needs to figure out how to do it by himself.

Lance remembers, back when Coran was giving him one on one lessons, how he had told him about how meditation can be used as a gateway to unlocking the true strength and identity of the mind. He even had taught him a special mantra; one that they both know that he shouldn’t have been taught, and Lance is eternally grateful for what Coran put on the line for him.

Lance shifts himself into the classic Altean meditation position and started the mantra.

‘I am who I am, no matter my birth’

‘I am who I am, no matter my birth’

‘I am who I am, no matter my birth’

‘I am who I am, no matter my birth’

As he continues to repeat the chant, falling farther and farther into a deep calm in his mind. Lance starts to imagine himself; his true self in his mind, letting his once distant dream become a reality in his mind. With every word, he feels as though his dream is more and more in reach than it was.

Lance starts to feel a warmth start below his gut, but he pushes that out of his mind as he continues to focus on the image of him as a man in both mind and body. The warm tingling feeling spreads the more he focuses, consuming his limbs and chest and traveling up his spine until it starts to pool in his head. It’s not like it hurts or anything, he just feels tingly and a bit too warm, but it’s nothing to really fuss over.

The first real spike of pain catches him off guard, throwing him from his mind as he hunches over as another spasm jerks through his stomach. He musters up enough strength to at least make it to the personal bathroom, dropping down on the lamented floor and curling over the toilet bowl as the contents of his stomach is retched out of him, over and over he throws up until it's only spit and stomach acid that comes up with each instinctive heave.

Once his body had decided that his stomach was empty, Lance shakily got up from the bathroom and headed back out into the bedroom, only to have every bone in his body begin to howl at him in pain, whatever strength he had been able to gain instantly lost as he collapses onto the floor, every joint, muscle and nerve ending screaming at him. He can’t help the scream that rips through his already sore throat as the pain seems to even rattle his skull from the inside out.

He’s not sure when mama and papa came into his room, all he could feel was the horrific spasms shaking through his very core, their words barely even registering in his head as every touch and movement he made was like setting fireworks off under his skin.

The world slipped away and all that he knew was ache and pain; shocking him from getting any sleep, and ravaging him to the bone. He lost all sense of time, he couldn’t tell if the room ever got hot or cool or if his parents even fed him or not. And usually if hey did an hour later he was throwing it back up again. Everything was just a foggy haze of burning touches and bones aching to their very core. It was as if someone was taking him apart from the inside out and haphazardly putting him back together, only to start over once again.

He just wants it all to stop.

* * * * * * *

Lance woke up to the soft sunlight dancing on his sweat covered face, making him all too aware of how gross he feels right now. Let alone how sore he felt. It was as if a pack of yelmors had trampled him to kingdom come. Hissing at the pull on his overused muscles, he slowly makes his way or of his sweat-drenched bed.

When he gets to the bathroom, he wills himself to look in the mirror and see how bad he actually looks. But instead of seeing the usual face he’s seen for the last 17 years of his life, instead, he’s looking at….a boy’s face.

No….his face!! This is his face now! The recollections of the past few days coming back to him as he stares in astonishment at how he looks like an actual boy. His hair is still long, but that can easily be cut. His eyes have gotten slimmer, and his features have sharpened from their once soft heart-shaped appearance. Lance takes the opportunity to throw off his shirt, looking at his now flat chest, and the more defined muscles that he had gained long ago. They still hug his body, making him more lithe than bulky, but he didn’t really care. All he could do was stare at how his chest was broad, flat and all his. This body is his. He can’t believe it! haha! If the elders saw him now they wouldn’t have hesitated to throw him out of the castle proclaiming that he was imperfect and unfit to be in line for the throne.

he’s never felt more perfect in his entire life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments are H U G E L Y appreciated


	3. Returning to the nest

“It’s...it’s not possible…” Lance whispers to himself as he walks out of the blue lion, following behind the rest of the humans that had unexpectedly decided to join him. But he could probably care less right now, as he looks up at the castle of lions.  
His home.  
Perfectly safe, albeit quite dirty, but that doesn’t stop him from running past the group, the castle recognizing him as he approaches and immediately opening up the grand doors.

‘Maybe everyone is okay, father, Coran, mother, Allura! The servants, the cooks; hell, I’ll even take the elders!’ Lance thinks to himself as he races through the halls, the lights always being just a hair ahead of him as they light his way to the cryo chambers. His excitement growing more and more about seeing everyone; the pilots, the guards, the maids, the people that he grew up with, that raised him and his sister. The possibility that he isn’t the last of his kind; that’s he’s not the last of an entire species. He can faintly hear Hunk and the others calling after him, telling him to wait and to slow down. But he can’t. He can’t wait another tick, he has to see, he has to know that he’s not alone anymore.

By the time he reached the cryo chambers, he’s forgone his human form and has returned to his true Altean state. His Short white hair slightly curling around his face, and his markings shining brightly under his eyes. He practically runs straight into the podium, catching himself in the nick of time, he starts up the podium and starts the defrosting of any pods in use. Only two pods rise to the surface.

Only two other Alteans survived.

Lance walks up the first pod, trying to see past the fogged glass who it was, startled slightly when the glass dissipates and a voice he’s known since he was a small child call out “father!” Toppling out of the pod right into Lance’s arms.   
“Allura!” Lance cheers out, twirling her around in his arms as he cries out in relief as a weight that has gotten far too comfortable in his heart finally lifts and spills down his cheeks in tears. He is aware that by now, the others have made their way into the room and are probably confused and in awe of him, but that barely registers with him as he cry’s into his twin sister's shoulder. He has her back, she’s back in his life, what more could he ask for in this moment.

“Who...who are you? Where am I? What’s-“ Allura’s questions stop as Lance raises his head and takes in Allura’s face. It hasn’t changed at all since he last saw her. But unlike his sister, Lance has aged a few years while living on earth, he’s older now, almost old enough to be crowned king of their now destroyed world. But she still looks the same. “A-Allana?”

Lance can’t bring himself to cringe at his old name, finding it an odd comfort hearing it from her.

“It’s...it’s Lance now.” He replies, watching her face turn from confusion to utter delight, a smile that could outshine the morning sun bursting on her face as she picks him up and laughs in joy at Lance’s new name and body. “ Lance. Lance. It suits you.” She tries out his name, her eyes sparkling in joy each time.

It’s then that one of the human’s, Shiro, clears his throat, reminding them of their presence in the room. The two of them unwind themselves from the other, both of them hesitant to leave the others side. But eventually Allura walks down the short set of stairs and starts to introduce herself to Shiro, Hunk, and the others while checking the holographic screens for an estimate of how long she was in the the pod. Lance can feel the stares from Hunk and Pidge boring into his back, and he knows that he has a lot questions to answer before either of them are appeased.

It’s then that the other pod starts to open, and Lance rushes over, expecting to see his father, hoping with every last fiber in his body that he’ll regain another family member. He’s a bit disappointed to see Coran open his eyes and jump out of the pod, crowing about enemy combatants and how their lucky he has a case of ‘the ol’ sleep chamber knees’, but Lance can’t stop himself for being grateful that Coran survived as well. He watches as Coran makes up silly moves that he says are deadly and doesn’t hesitate to pull him into a long over do hug, letting a few more bitter and relief filled tears slip past his clenched eyelids. “Coran, I’ve missed you so much.”

“Do-uh… do I know you?”

Lance lets out a watery chuckle; of course Coran doesn’t recognize him right away, he’s changed quite a bit since the last time he’s seen him.Lance loosens the hug enough to where they’re facing each other, refusing to let go all the way.

“It’s-its me, A-Allana. Well, it’s Lance now, but you used to call me-“ Lance is cut off mid sentence by Coran pulling him back into a crushing hug, whispering apology after apology into his hair. Lance wants to tell him it’s not his fault, that he couldn’t have known what was going to happen, but the words get caught in his throat as Allura finds out and tells them that they’ve been asleep for 10,000 years.

They’ve been asleep for 10,000 years, well 9,997 years for Lance, but it was still a daunting amount of time.

Their people have been dead for 10,000 years.

And now they're the only ones left.

Lance can feel the weight of Allura on his back as she joins into their hug, Lance shifts around to where she is in his lapis Coran takes up his side, each of the holding onto the other as if it’s the only thing keeping them alive. There is still so much to be done, so much that needs to happen, questions to answer, and from what Shiro tells them, an empire that needs to be destroyed.

But right now, in this small amount of time, the only thing that matters is that their people are gone, but they do not have to grieve and go through this alone.

Not anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always appreciated and welcomed!


End file.
